NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Many emerging economies are grappling with how to modernize their economies, improve transparency, drive sustainable growth and advance financial inclusion. This study on Tanzania’s digital payment initiatives reveals the very strong results achieved by the government so far.

By digitizing the payments businesses and people make to the government, Tanzania has already:

• Empowered its tourism sector by reducing economic leakage from cash payments, such as conservation park entry fees, by over 40 percent, supporting investment and employment.
• Cut bureaucratic inefficiencies, including reducing import customs clearance times from nine days to less than one day.
• Increased transparency between citizens and governments, by digitizing tax payments which has provided electronic proof of payments and protects people against fraud.